CONTENTS.

17. John Huss and Jerome of 41. Missions among the North

1.

CRUCIFIXION.

THE Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, his sufferings and death, are the greatest and most important events, which have ever taken place in our world.

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, came into our world, took upon him our nature, and suffered the penalties of the divine law, in our stead. By his sufferings and death, by crucifixion, he hath brought "life and immortality to light;" he hath opened a glorious way whereby fallen and depraved man can be reconciled and received into the favour of God.

"In the hour of Christ's death," says an elegant writer "the long series of prophecies, visions, types and figures, was accomplished. This was the centre in which they all met; this the point towards which they had tended and verged, throughout the course of so many generations. By that one sacrifice which he now offered, he abolished sacrifices forever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for ages, were now

they went, and the most of them were called to seal their testimony with their blood.

St. James the Great was by trade a fisherman, and partner with Simon Peter, and related to our Lord, his mother and the Virgin Mary being kinswomen.

When Herod Agrippa was made governor of Judea by the emperor Caligula, he raised a persecution against the Christians, and particularly singled out James as an object of his vengeance. This martyr, on being condemned to death, showed such an intrepidity of spirit, and constancy of mind, that even his accuser was struck with admiration, and became a convert to Christianity. This transaction so enraged the people in power, that they likewise condemned him to death; when James the Apostle, and his penitent accuser, were both beheaded on the same day, with the same sword. These events took place in the year of our Lord 44.

St. Philip was employed in several important commissions by Christ, and being deputed to preach in Upper Asia, laboured very diligently in his apostleship. He then travelled into Phrygia, and arriving at Heliopolis, found the inhabitants so sunk in idolatry as to worship a large